Topic: crazy idea: use bitcoin to fund construction of a solar/wind/etc power plant (Read 3854 times)

Fuding with bitcoin is like funding with money... nothing to do with bitcoin itself

You don't ever need to sell electricity back to the grid. It is economical to do so if you have extra electricity then what you can use. If the option is there then any rational person would do so

This would be very interesting....and useful.

Yes, those components are not needed in the other generator because of the design differences. But I agree, The quality of the Austrian one will be higher and ultimately the location and water available will determine the best application. I like the Zotloeterer design but there is always a tradeoff if you have something proprietary and patented. One has to consider the availability of parts , and replacement of components in the future as well.

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I agree Zotloeterer is probably more expansive. You also could argue China quality vs. Austria quality, but in the end the location and topography dictates what you can use.

The way the Peltonturbine works you are also looking at building a basin of sorts at the top of the head and from there a straight downpipe to the shed where you have the Turbine.

Yes, 2 k for the generator. 3 k shipped.

The Z O T L Ö T E R E R GWVPP-kit consists of:

(1) Planning papers for getting the authorisation and for building the rotation tank.

(2) Single licence.

(3) Coarse screen, weir gate and inflow gate.

So the kit for 45k is basically the generator alone, some screen, and valves which the link I provided includes too.

The 3k is just the start of the costs, one has to add concrete, the piping , extra valves, installation, copper cabling , ect.... So it would more likely be 10k for everything.

The product you are suggesting would run at least 55k and is better for areas of little to no elevation and a tremendous amount of water. You would need 900gallons per second of water just to produce 40kwh with that unit!

 So if you had access to a large lake attached to a river than this may work. Otherwise high velocity , low volume is better.

I would think a location with 5 feet head is easier to find than a 160 meter head location. Flow requirements seem similar. I agree, every situation is different. Looks like the 3k is just the generator? In the 45k are several things included (see their site), basically all you have to do is build the basin.

You mean build a power plant.

With a 160 meter head and 0.087 m3/s of volume you can generate 100 kWh with a ~3 k usd turgo turbine.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pelton-water-turbine-generator/1836459433.html

So you may need this product for certain areas or applications , but it would be wiser to select an area which didn't necessitate it.

As you can see, there are many designs with a wide price range depending upon your environment.

http://www.green-trust.org/wordpress/tag/hydro/

Technically with microhydro you don't need to sell any back to the grid, but I agree in your premise if you are only considering solar or wind which has transient production times.

This would not work in the way you intended. You appear to be trying to be figuring out a way to get "free" or reduced cost electricity. Any kind of setup that allows you to sell excess electricity back to the grid will not achieve this goal. Your cost of electricity that is used by your miners will be the amount you could get for the electricity by selling it back to the grid. The net effect would actually probably be that you have higher electric costs as you will have to pay for the solar panals

Or just buy a power plant.

rather than trees you better plant truffles

i know i know ... many of you will say it's not possible to plant truffles ... well it is because you just have to buy the right trees that have the truffles at their roots ... wait a few years then sell the truffles

If you honestly have 3 acres of land you should look into planting rare trees. Some trees after grown for a few to 5 or 6 years are worth hundreds to thousands of dollars per tree. Depending on where you live that is infinitely more lucrative than hosting mining for someone(and a hell of a lot easier). Seriously, you can make some major bank. People do bamboo farming(labor intensive though) and they make 100k+ a year on a few acres, just by selling it because bamboo is used in furniture and other eating utensils more and more. A rare white oak or yew tree or whatever the hell is rare these days is seriously an easy way to make bank if it is unused property. only thing u gotta worry about is caging things off from deer who eat the things while they are small trees, but if u can protect everything for a year u are good. good luck.

Wow, I have seen 4 different categories of microhydro but this is a completely new one! Interesting product but a lack of prices and exclusive patents scare me ... their kit probably costs a fortune.

I think a wind turbine will be the most efficient one if you can find a place where the wind blows all the time

near the coast or something like that


water turbine if you have a waterfall near you just go for it


more I don't know, I'm just thinking this would be great places where you will get a lot of energy

Good points. Any such proposal should be comprehensive in nature to increase profits and differentiate yourself from the rest of the miners. Some people choose to pay more for green power sources. This would allow small profits to be realized while at the same time help the community and set a good example.

One should never expect anything but small profits on mining regardless, the market is too competitive.

Imagine the good press the community would receive and the myths that we would dispel from environmentalists or PoS /DPOs proponents who constantly smear PoW as being incredibly wasteful and bad for the environment.

A permaculture farm , with ASICS and everything powered by microhydro, that used the heat to dehydrate organic fruits, that are both sold and given away to charities to fight hunger which was owned and controlled by a co-opt decentraly. Now that would be awesome.

Please, someone steal these ideas and run with them .... I may do so myself on my land as I have most of those things already.

Note that those are DiabloD3's (thread OP) comments. Diablo Mining Company has never built anything. Because of issues like "zero expertise in anything related to this and very little general managerial experience" for starters. Any "return" was thanks to the BTC rate rising from IPO time to close down time and measured in USD. People who just held the BTC instead of investing in DMC were a lot better off. Total failure is a good description of that venture.

But I agree, as an enthusiast's project with the land and hydro requirements (and some places you need the rights to use that water too) and not expecting any or very little return - sure why not.

I like this one: http://www.zotloeterer.com/welcome/ If I could, I would.

Hmmm... at those 5cent rates the breakeven for electricity alone would be around 5 years with micro hydro . The problem I see with Diablo mining company is they went solar which far slower of a payback than micro-hydro and more maintenance. The problem is micro hydro is that you either need a piece of land with a small river or spring and a 300 meter + drop in elevation (High velocity , low volume) or a 3-6 meter drop and large amounts of continuous water (Low velocity /high volume) so this limits the available locations.

    The thread indicates-" Between 158% and 183% of the original investment has been repaid." so i don't think it was a total failure of a project even with the big mistake of using solar.


There could be other motivations for this project -
1) Wanting to increase mining decentralization
2) Wanting to give opportunity for an average user to have a fairer distribution in earnings as a partner vs cloud mining
3) Wanting to provide green mining solutions to encourage others to follow suit and set a standard for bitcoin for years to come

This being said, if anyone wanted to put together this project you may as well try to at least accomplish these aspects:

1) Have a suitable location already where land wouldn't need to be purchased to lower costs until it is scaled up.
2) Design a system that reused the waste heat from all the asic miners in a productive means. I.E. heating water for homes, heating a warehouse, ect...
3) Absolutely do the math and determine the best return(which means solar is probably out unless you build a multi-million dollar solar tower)
4) If the land is single purpose use make sure it is being utilized for something else as well